Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Medicine And Magic And A Little Bit More

The geneticist we saw today probably buys her clothes in the children's section of Old Navy. I'm not kidding. She barely looks a day over fourteen but she seemed to know her stuff and as with almost everyone we've seen at this point, I think she got a bit of a hoot out of us.
We laugh, we cry. We crack a lot of jokes.
Anyway, the neurologist sent Mr. Moon to her to have her check out a diagnosis he had in mind but she seems to think it may be something else so he's going to be genetically tested for both of those things AND she wants him to get an echocardiogram, not that he's had any cardiac symptoms at all but one of the syndromes she wants to test him for can cause aortic aneurysms and so...
Good Golly, Miss Molly. Of course as soon as she left the room, Mr. Moon and I were Dr. Googling on our phones like crazy and going, "No, no. This can't be it," but she's the doctor and so we shall see.

Jason went to get a CT scan today after he went to see a doctor about the headache he's had for over a week. I kept saying it was probably sinus but the doctor wanted to be on the safe side, I'm sure (they have insurance) and Lily called to tell me that despite what everyone thinks, Jason's brain is normal.
And they're going to be treating him for a sinus infection.

So. Apropos of nothing, my duck, Lily, never goes swimming any more. I believe she's forgotten she's a duck and has completely come to self-identify as a chicken. She feeds and naps with the chickens all day long and goes to bed with them too. Of course, she doesn't sit on a roost, but makes her bed in the corner in the hay.
Isn't that odd?
Speaking of birds (my segues are not very graceful today, are they?) I believe that little web-footed creature I helped rescue yesterday may be a juvenile Canadian Snow Goose. There sure are a lot of them in that area although how it could have gotten separated from his or her mother, I do not know. It was pretty large to still be mostly bedowned if you ask me. Of course, I know nothing about ducks except for the one we have and she's a mystery to me.

All right. I really don't have any more news. The next two days are going to be fairly boy-filled. They are even spending the night on Friday. I will have Gibson by himself for a long time tomorrow and that should be good. I love hearing what he has to say. Yesterday he asked Jessie and me both if we could do magic. I told him that I made his mother and his aunt and so yes, I can do magic.
He sadly said, "I can't make magic," and I thought that it must have been an incredibly complex thought process to come to that conclusion. Perhaps we shall discuss this tomorrow and I will tell him that he IS magic and that's good enough. Hank was his age when HE wanted to do magic and wanted a magic kit but I informed him that he had to be able to read so he could follow the instructions before he could get one.
So the child learned to read in the next week or two but that was Hank and as he says, his whole life since then has been one long, "Does not work up to expectations," and although I don't remember that being the case, it makes me laugh.
I've had a kid who taught himself to read at age three and a kid that spent years in special classes dealing with reading disabilities and guess what?
They both lead incredibly complex and interesting and successful lives as do their more "normal" siblings although none of my kids are normal and if you don't believe me, ask anyone who knows them and their parents aren't normal either and you probably aren't either.

Let's all just keep moving on, one step at a time, adapting and learning and persevering as we must, each in our own special way and hey! they can test your blood to find out almost anything but not everything and even if they know what you have, it doesn't mean they can do a damn thing about it.
But it's nice to know, I would imagine, to find out that you have a normal brain.

16 comments:

I remember my Creative Writing teacher noted on my mid-term progress report that I was 'a disruption to the class', then gave me straight A's. I told my parents that class clowns are capable of getting good grades. My granddaughter was diagnosed with a learning disability at the age of six, and I truly believe it was a hindrance to her until she decided at 12 that it wasn't. I'm not fond of labels.

My son was a late reader and an iffy test taker yet his mind is lightening fast and it traps information just floating by and never lets it go. I think sometimes we get the brain we need for the life we want tho some insist it's the other way around. Sending good and healing thoughts to mr moon and the whole magical fam.

Loved this post, for so many reasons. Been catching up reading your past posts, as usual, and would love to hug you for half a dozen reasons, especially for making me smile.

I hope your Mr. gets some answers and you get some peace of mind. I've been thinking today about Elizabeth's post on J&J Big Pharma, is how many scary meds are slung at us just because the doctors don't know what else to do to, or are blatantly mislead. It would be nice to have some faith that the medicines we take won't do more harm than good but that is like believing in magic some days.

Oh, our children, and their complex, interesting and successful lives - isn't it a mystery and a marvel? I love how you notice it and put it to words. My dyslexic observer boy must see the world through Hank's lens - hyper realistic/cynical/ bemused and confused and I have no easy answers for his disappointments in the world, not the least of which is the fact that there is no real magic, just lots of real life, which is too often shitty. I wish I could have made him believe in magic a little longer. And yet he has an odd optimism, and a belief that all the sound and fury will die off and his generation will move gracefully past many of our current social divisions. He keeps telling me that half the stuff I worry about isn't a blip on his generation's radar, especially where human rights, compassion, and the really important stuff are concerned. I really hope he's right. It makes me less a pessimist.

Lord, one more thing. After watching a street performer in New Orleans do magic tricks decades ago, my husband was enamored and bought a bunch of magic stuff. Needless to say, magic is hard, and once the tricks were revealed, most of the magic wore off. Let me know if you need any trick card decks, I'm getting rid of stuff, lol!

Oh my, Rosemarie, your comment about your son - that is exactly how my son's unique brain works. His memory and ability to synthesize are scary, and he keeps his cards very close to his vest. Big thinker, not a small talker.I miss you too, promise I'll clunk out a post soon :)And yes indeed, aren't the Moons a magical family? It's a wonderful mystery how we all stumbled upon each other here.

Catrina- I think that my daughter who had the reading disability learned so many skills in learning to read that have served her incredibly well over the years. Yeah. Labels. Fuck them.

Angella- And whichever way it works, it works. Love you, darling.

Mel- And isn't it amazing how the things that worry us beyond belief at various stages of our kids' lives become a vague memory later on? We worry too much about things that need to have attention paid, yes, but not so much damn WORRY! I love that you said we're a magical family. I think we are but that's me. I think I just pay attention and see the magic that happens and then talk about it. Love you and miss you. Keep the faith, baby.

The other day I was filling a prescription and the pharmacist looked to be about 12. I wanted to ask him if it was bring your child to work day. It wasn't and he is a full grown man of 27. (I asked. Rude, but I had to know and he didn't mind.)

Today I am tired and when I read your description about Lily the duck I read over the part "my duck. Lily... and just thought you were talking about your daughter Lily and I had a WTF? moment.

Once when I was at the doctor's office a lady came in with a headache that she had had for several days. It turned out she was constipated. That is some serious back up.

That post was just a joy to read and again you remind me of the good things in life . Nothing normal here in my family either but like your family we all love each other and spend a lot of time together, and it's joyful. Sometimes it's sad too, crests and waves as well.

I hope whatever is going on with Mr Moon is not serious. I am glad they are checking him out thoroughly. And I am glad Jason's brain is normal. Yep and Gibson is magic alright. Just all by himself. I hope you gave a peaceful sleep.

I never did learn the magic very well, but that's where I learned about stage patter and how it works. I use that every day in my trivia career (ha ha ha). I'm as much an entertainer as a magician is - just with a different shtick. And around and around it goes.

My teachers always used to remind me to "live up to my potential," or something like that. It used to annoy me. But I admit that I generally did just enough to get a B -- or a C, if it was math class -- and I was happy with that. I had books to read, after all.

I hope the genetic thing goes well. It sounds interesting, if a little scary. And is it just me or is a CT scan for a week of headaches a little extreme?

I'm so behind in reading you probably won't even see this comment! Are they looking at Marfan's Syndrome for Mr. Moon? Don't google it! Just sounds like that may be what she was thinking. And if so, an echo is absolutely a good idea.

Birdie- These professionals are getting younger and younger and younger. I swear. Pretty soon we'll have to change our lawyers' diapers!Hell. I remember when every malady was supposedly caused by constipation! It was a huge big deal.

Jenny_o- The less normal the more interesting!

Leisha- I always love that old saying which is something like, "Love decreases sorrow by half and increases joy by doubling it." There is truth to that.

Joanne- Well, it's seriously affecting his life. But it would appear, at least at this point, that he will not die from whatever it is going on and that's the important thing.

Elizabeth- Who needs segues anyway?

That Hank- Absolutely! Skills acquired are rarely wasted!

Steve Reed- Yeah. Potential. Uh-huh. I remember that one too. And books were all I cared about for the most part. We are much alike.And hell yes- a CT scan for a headache is sort of ridiculous. If he hadn't had insurance, they would have just treated for a sinus infection to begin with.

Mwa- Dr. Google lies frequently.

Denise- So true. And now, quite sadly, the duck is no more. I am a bad duck mama.

Jill- Yes. Marfan's. He has very few of the markers though. But it's a good idea to test for it.

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